


gunpowder and blades

by cherrymaraschino



Category: ATEEZ (Band), BVNDIT (Band)
Genre: (only slightly), Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Pirate, Alternate Universe - Thieves, Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, F/M, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Lowercase, M/M, Supernatural Elements, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:42:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22515679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherrymaraschino/pseuds/cherrymaraschino
Summary: "it does notbelongto you," mingi all but snarls. they don't pay him any mind, mounting their horses and laughing quietly amongst themselves."it does, but what does it matter? do you not know what it means to be a thief?" the one named yiyeon smiles, "spare me your morals, pirate, and hurry up. if you do, your ship just might get to your treasure first."
Relationships: Choi San/Lee Simyeong, Jeong Yunho/Song Mingi, Kang Yeosang/Park Seonghwa, Lee Simyeong/Uhm Jungwoo
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	gunpowder and blades

there’s an orange sunburnt blush across his cheeks, his hair tangles in the wind, powdery and dry from the salt in the air. hongjoong is standing on the forecastle deck, the toe of his boot tapping the beat to a song he picked up on their last stop, squinting into the horizon. 

“can just make out the coast!” wooyoung calls from the crow’s nest, “should be in kingston come tomorrow night!”

“aye!” hongjoong calls back and hops down onto the main deck, walking across to the back. 

jongho and mingi are arguing again. hongjoong scoffs to himself: all they do is bicker, and fight, and threaten each other with blades, but come nightfall they curl up next to each other like kittens in a basket. it’s amusing to say the least. 

yunho is pulling sails like the diligent military sailor he once was. he’s peeling off his sweat-soaked shirt and hongjoong notices how mingi gets distracted from his squabble with their youngest. they’re keeping secrets but they aren’t subtle whatsoever. hongjoong doesn’t pry, keeps his knowledge for future blackmail. you never know. 

san is tuning his old worn fiddle, laughing at something wooyoung yells at him from above. if it wasn’t for san and his shanties they’d all go insane and their ship would promptly sink, hongjoong is convinced. 

“we’re stopping at port royal?” seonghwa comes up behind hongjoong and leans on the helm. 

“we are.” 

seonghwa hums.  
“cursed place.”

“did yeosang say so?” 

seonghwa goes a bit rigid, but calms quickly. he knows hongjoong makes fun of yeosang’s abilities not unkindly, despite not believing in them.   
“he did, but we all know that without a third eye. it’s dangerous, we should be on the down low, captain.” 

“we _are_ on the down low, we haven’t stopped in weeks, supplies are running out.”

“we could stop anywhere but the biggest loudest port in the caribbean.” 

“this isn’t up for discussion, hwa. we have to stop,” hongjoong sighs, “this isn’t the best choice, but we’ll find more supplies, more information here. maybe even extra crew members.”

“i’m not arguing with you,” seonghwa throws his hands up defensively, “but you said it yourself, we have to keep moving. you need this loot, not us. we’re doing this for you.” 

hongjoong sighs. there’s too much on the line, his crew for one, and then the ship. it’s not even his ship, not yet. he hasn’t earned it, despite both seonghwa and mingi insisting otherwise. he made a couple promises and keeping promises is the first point of his code. every night he closes his eyes and sees before himself the glossy wild dying gaze of his captain. he was only a powder monkey back then, captured on a naval ship and kept alive miraculously. the next surprise came as he realized the pirates were willing to treat him better than the officers; he earned his first own gold, he was secure, he was equal, despite being only twelve. 

he was fourteen when they were finally outnumbered. the ship held strong, barely a scratch on her, but the crew were slowly sinking to the bottom of the sea. just him and the captain, a cold calculating man, someone hongjoong barely ever saw, let alone spoke to. they bailed the ship, got washed up on the shore of an unnamed island and as the captain was dying he grabbed the boy by the arms and forced him to make a promise he’s going to have to keep, lest he and everyone he holds dear be cursed for the rest of their lives. 

hongjoong isn’t superstitious in the slightest, but he has no other purpose. a pirate needs a goal and for a scrawny little boy fulfilling a dead captain’s was as good as any other. crew after crew, ship after ship, failure after failure, step after step, hongjoong had the skills and guts. he also had seonghwa, a mate who’s skills weren’t appreciated on a ship on account of his age. they bailed and stole another one. navigating a ship with two people is hard, but not impossible; hongjoong was convinced that nothing was. they then found mingi, a petty thief in a tavern who tried to steal seonghwa’s coin. mingi was good with a cutlass, better with his words, and phenomenal with his temper, fearless. san tagged along and stuck out like a sore thumb at first; a bard on a pirate ship, what a joke. hongjoong will kill for him. jongho was hired formally, yunho was rescued accidentally, yeosang followed seonghwa out of love and wooyoung found them himself. their reputation was preceding them: a crew of barely adults, blessed or cursed with stupid luck, swapping ships like undershirts, hoarding money and loot. 

he found her finally, almost ten years later; she was for sale at a port in spain. he’d recognize her anywhere, the siren on the bowsprit and the stained glass windows of the captain’s cabin. _his_ cabin. they all declared him captain, he would have rather had seonghwa be one. “you have a goal,” seonghwa had told him then, “we’ll help you achieve it.” he couldn’t wish for a better crew. they do not follow him blindly, they allow themselves to speak their mind but they’re heartbreakingly loyal. hongjoong sometimes think he doesn’t deserve the loyalty or the concerned touch of seonghwa’s hand on his shoulder.

“i’m just worried we might get in trouble,” seonghwa says quietly. 

“oh, we absolutely will get into trouble!” wooyoung laughs, hopping down from the mast, “otherwise what’s the fun of stopping in ports?” 

“it _isn’t_ fun,” seonghwa furrows his eyebrows, “ports smell like rotten fish, and piss, and alcohol. and all the reeking toothless bastards that drink all day and night to drown their failures and can’t find comfort in anything but the company of women who didn’t choose that for themselves.” 

“you only hate ports because all attention is on yeosang once we step foot into a tavern.” 

“so what if i do? all those dirty fuckers can’t keep their hands off him,” seonghwa spits, “i’ll break a neck if i have to.” 

“they’re pirates, hwa,” hongjoong smiles, “ _we’re_ pirates.” 

“well i don’t see any of you groping people just because they’re pretty!” 

“you aren’t paying enough attention then. look for sannie this time, see what girl catches his eye,” wooyoung shrugs.

“i do not _grope_!” san yells at him, appalled, “well, i mean i do, but not without permission!” 

“valor itself,” wooyoung rolls his eyes, dodging away from san and the fiddle bow he intended to hit him with. 

across the deck mingi swears at jongho and apparently gets a fist to the face.   
“fucking hell… bos’n!” hongjoong calls. 

“captain!” yunho responds, suppressing his laughter. 

“see that they don’t kill each other before we reach shore!”

“aye aye!” 

seonghwa was right, ports _are_ disgusting but they aren’t anything hongjoong’s crew aren’t used to. jongho almost feels just as at ease in taverns as he does at sea: the alcohol, the candlelight, the warmth, and the chatter are comforting. san and wooyoung go straight to the bar, laughing and hanging off each other, seonghwa, mingi, yeosang and yunho grab some seat, not really ones for conversation or excessive drinking, hongjoong catches up with acquaintances, and jongho is left to his own devices. he sits outdoors, prefers it to the stale air inside. mingi had placed a grog in front of him with something that resembles a rum that’s watered down and reduced at the same time. revolting, but jongho sips it nonetheless. how he ended like this he doesn’t know but genuinely wouldn’t have it any other way. he was born to do this, his father was at sea, his grandfather too, there was no other way, no matter how much his mother tried to convince him otherwise. hongjoong seemed most honorable out of everyone who ever offered him a place. 

jongho hears a fiddle and dancing footsteps of about fifteen people back inside the tavern. he scoffs; san and his fiddle are especially bewitching when the former is a little bit drunk. someone’s singing (wooyoung, probably) a song with words that tell a story of sea monsters and fair maidens and not-so-appropriate endeavours. it’s not a tasteful song, but jongho finds himself tapping his feet to it anyway. 

“you look lonely,” a girl in a flowy brown cloak falls on a stool in front of him. she’s pretty, delicate, looks about jongho’s own age, her hair is a faux red, fringe damp and sticking to her forehead; she must have been dancing, “not drunk enough to have some fun?” 

“never drunk enough for the kind of fun those two are having in there,” jongho vaguely gestures towards san and wooyoung; they seem to be on a table. 

“they’re good! they your friends?”

“crewmates.”

“so you’re a pirate?”

jongho takes a sip of his drink and nods. the girl turns around and looks out to the dozen of ships docked in the harbour below.   
“which one’s yours?” 

“the one with the mermaid at the bowsprit.”

the girl whistles once she finds it.  
“what’s her name?”

“she doesn’t have a name.”

the girl turns back around, surprised.  
“bad luck, you know,” she tsks and takes jongho’s grog out of his hand, “having a ship at sea without a name.”

“we seem to be doing just fine,” bit of a stretch, but jongho has dignity, “besides, our captain isn’t one for superstitions.”

“does your captain also not care about what his men are drinking? this is stomach-churning!” she winces after trying some of his rum and flips the grog over, pouring it on the ground, “could i get you something better?”

“is that out of good spirit or you want something in return?” 

“just some company,” she smiles, “or not. i’d like to buy you one regardless.” 

jongho shrugs in agreement and watches her skip back into the tavern. 

he comes to his senses when he’s being hauled onto the ship at the crack of dawn. 

“fuck, how much did you have,” he hears yunho grunt. he’s must be the one hauling him. 

“he was with a la-a-ady,” san sing-songs, walking by his other side, “i saw him sitting outside with her. gorgeous little thing, red hair and all. probably lost count as he lost himself in her eyes.”

“bet you it’s the first time he’s ever spoken to a girl,” mingi quipped. if jongho wasn’t completely out of it he’d punch him.   
“shut upf…” is all that he can muster before falling back into unconsciousness. 

“what’s wrong with him?” hongjoong asks, already waiting for them on the deck.

“had one too many,” yunho mumbles and passes jongho over to seonghwa who drops him down into the hold where their sleeping quarters are. 

“i need you all at your best the next few days,” hongjoong shakes his head, feigning disappointment. 

“you seem to know where we’re going next,” seonghwa stands in front of him, crossing his arms.

“i asked around the port. there’s an isle several miles east matching the description.”

“it’s not going to be pretty,” yeosang states quietly, matter-of-factly. 

“nothing we ever do is pretty, sangie,” san claps him on the shoulder, “that’s why nothing you ever _see_ is pretty. hey, why don’t you read my future instead!” 

“i’ve told you, that’s not how it works,” yeosang rolls his eyes, “i can’t _tell_ the future. i can feel what’ll happen.” 

“boring,” san fakes a yawn and walks down into the quarters, “night, captain! night to the rest of you bastards too!” 

hongjoong watches the rest follow him down and almost turns around to retire to his own cabin, but notices yunho standing on the deck, leaning over the railing, staring into the black water. it’s empty and unnerving, the water. hongjoong, for all his sailing prowess, is sometimes really scared of it. some times it’s the darkness, others it’s the rising bodies of those who sailed this ship before him. no one will ever know this weakness. 

“you okay?” 

yunho is startled slightly, but he smiles and shakes his head.   
“i am. don’t feel like sleeping.”

“you should though. it’ll be a difficult few days.” 

“you shouldn’t worry about me, captain.” 

“you look like something’s bothering you,” hongjoong is careful with yunho; yunho’s the newest, he isn’t used to the pace and the blood and the violence. he, like hongjoong once upon a time, was a cabin boy on a military vessel. they raided it for loot and yunho asked to come with. mingi took care of him, but it was difficult, hongjoong can tell that it still is, “would you like to talk?”

“i don’t think so,” yunho shakes his head again, “maybe later. i really am okay, captain. you should get some shut eye.” 

hongjoong sighs, unsatisfied, but doesn’t push. he pats yunho on the small of his back and turns around to leave when yunho calls him. 

“captain! you do know that we’ll follow you to world’s end?”

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed !! please consider saying hello on [twt](https://twitter.com/99yunho)
> 
> feedback and kudos would be very appreciated !!


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